CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat on Sunday asked the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre to refrain from disinvestment of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited.
He said there was no need to offload the government equity in RINL, the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, India’s only shore-based steel plant. The plant recently expanded its capacity from three million tonne to 6.3 million tonne with an investment of Rs.12,300 crore mobilised from internal accruals.
After a visit to Hudhud-hit VSP here at Ukkunagaram, he said RINL is a profit-making company and he saw no reason, whatsoever, to hand it over on a golden platter to private investors.
The disinvestment of RINL to offload 10 per cent of government equity to start with is pending with market regulator SEBI after the Navratna company submitted draft red herring prospectus sometime ago.
Mr. Karat said divestment of RINL would go against nation’s interest and his party was committed to fight tooth and nail against the NDA move. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who earlier visited the cyclone affected areas here, had also expressed his opposition to disinvestment of RINL.
Asked to comment on forced shutdown of VSP on October 12 after Hudhud hit the coast, he said a probe should be ordered to find out the circumstances which led to forced shutdown.
CPI (M) State Secretariat member Ch. Narsinga Rao said RINL management was responsible for ignoring the advisory issued by the district administration to take all precautions before Hudhud ravaged the region and warnings issued by Indian Meteorological Department and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
CPI (M) State secretary P. Madhu said his party would mobilise the support of all other parties and unions to stall disinvestment of RINL.
